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Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics 2004 awarded

American professors Hongjie Dai and Peidong Yang have been honored for their pioneering scientific achievement in the nanosciences

This year’s Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics will be jointly awarded to the American professors Hongjie Dai of Stanford University and Peidong Yang of UC Berkeley for their pioneering research in the nanosciences and the applications in the field of nanotechnology derived from their findings. The award ceremony will be held at 12 noon on October 6 in the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco.

The nanosciences focus on the composition of atomic- and molecular-scale building blocks just one-thousandth of a micrometer in size. The innovative discoveries by this year’s award recipients will be of enormous importance for manufacturers of optoelectronic components and nanoelectronics chips. Thanks to Dai’s findings, it is possible to purposefully grow high quality carbon nanotubes on surfaces and use them to investigate the various interesting intrinsic physical properties of these novel materials, explore the performance limit of molecular transistors and develop nanosensors. Yang’s work will permit production of customized nanolasers made of nanowires, which will in turn open the door to entirely new methods of manufacturing optoelectronic components. This is the dawn of a revolution in laser and sensor technology enabling the development of even smaller, faster components.

A chemistry professor at Stanford University in California since 1997, Hongjie Dai specializes in the chemistry, physics and molecular electronics of carbon nanotubes as well as the solid state chemistry and physics of nanowires.

Peidong Yang is a chemistry professor at UC Berkeley and devotes his scientific attentions to the synthesis and properties of new types of nanostructured materials.

The Julius Springer Prize of Applied Physics recognizes scientists who have made an outstanding and innovative contribution to the discipline of applied physics. It has been awarded every year since 1998 by the editors of the Springer journals Applied Physics A – Materials Science & Processing and Applied Physics B – Lasers and Optics.